Nelson & His World

My current research project on the Enclosure Acts caused me today to look into some local newspapers from 1801.

I found myself a bit distracted - (nothing new there!) - when in July of that year I noticed a little of flurry of adverts for local schools and academies. They were obviously recruiting pupils for the new school year - as one of them stated that the school would commence on 20th July.

First thought - that's odd! As we are so conditioned to children breaking up for the summer holidays around that date.

Second thought - perhaps back then their summer holidays were taken much earlier.

Third thought - perhaps the whole notion of long school holidays is a modern thing. Maybe back then the schooling went on 52 weeks a year - with the odd break for the major church festivals.

If thought three is correct it would go some way to explaining how Nelson and his contemporaries seemed to become so accomplished in so few years of formal schooling.

I am sure the answer is out there somewhere but I don't really know where to look.

If anyone can help - would be much appreciated!!

Thanks

MB

Mark:

I know that the school year at Eton and most public schools in the 18th century was divided into two halves; indeed, the terms of the school year at Eton today are still called 'halves' even though there are three of them. The boys would go home for Christmas and in the summer.

The Rev George Austen, father of Jane, like many impoverished clergymen, ran a school as a sideline. Jane's biographer, Claire Tomalin, writes:

'Twice a year [the boys] arrived, in February and again at the end of August, and twice a year they departed, for the Christmas season and in June; the school year was divided into two halves at Mr Austen's, just as at the great public schools'.

His niece Eliza wrote a letter in May 1786 to Jane's cousin saying that 'Midsummer and Christmas are the only times when his mansion is sufficiently at liberty to admit of his receiving his friends. '

Whether Mr Austen was unusual in copying the public schools or not I'm not sure. Christmas was fixed, but summer holidays might have been quite flexible, as they were once compulsory education was introduced later in the 19th century. In the countryside, summer holidays were always arranged round harvest time, so that the children could help bring in the crops.

I think the scholastic accomplishments of Nelson and his contemporaries were achieved partly because the curriculum was so narrow: no science, no modern languages, no graphic design, no economics, no personal and social education, no school orchestra or choir, no school drama or field trips etc. etc. that have to be squeezed into the school programme today.

Aha!

I didn't know this thing about "halves". So that's something new I have learned today!

It would work quite conveniently as follows:

The pupils start on July 20th and work through until Christmas.

Then they restart in January and work through till June when they take a midsummer break.

The only thing that doesn't work - is that they wouldn't be available for harvest.

If I can possibly manage it I will look through the whole year and see if adverts crop up at any other time. That may give some further clue as to how the whole thing worked.

If anyone is interested - the curriculum for this one particular school read as follows

- English
- Latin
- Greek
- Writing
- Arithmetic
- Merchants' Accounts
- the lower Branches of Mathematics
- Projection of the Sphere
- Geography
- Use of the Globes
- Construction of Maps
- History
- Practical Astronomy
- Navigation
- but all the higher Branches of the Mathematics, Physical Astronomy, Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, adapted to the capacity of Youth, and explained on an Apparatus on Purpose.

So there you have it!!

MB

P.S. I did Maths up to O-Level but I don't ever remember the terms lower and higher branches being used.

A Google search gives some quite diverse information - but if anyone has an "idiot's guide" to what constitutes the lower and higher branches of Mathematics I would be interested to see that.

Thanks

MB

Mark,

I thought the last one on your list was perhaps the most interesting! In actual fact, perhaps they should actually teach some to those today, in place of some of the gobbledegook that you hear about these days! But then I suppose there'd be a riot – from the teaching staff, as well as the pupils!

Mark:

according to this website, Higher Mathematics was created by Newton and Leibnitz:

http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/phys3c03/notes/bios1.pdf

I don't pretend to understand it, having scraped a pass in O level Maths to the amazement of all. (I think some poor girl with my name is still wondering why she failed!) Though the link does mention 'differential equations' which I think was part of the syllabus. Can I really have dipped a toe into Higher Mathematics? How very cheering.

As a sideline, there appears to be no connection between mathematical and arithmetical abilities. I'm hopeless at algebra, geometry etc. but can add up a column of figures very fast indeed - without a calculator!

That's very intriguing!

Not to say that I fully understood the article. But it helps me that there was a defined point in time that "Higher Mathematics" came into being.

Couldn't help smiling at a thought from a few years back - when various people were put forward for "Greatest Ever Briton".

I ended up in discussion with a colleague. I was putting the best possible case I could for Nelson and he (being a Maths specialist) was rooting for Newton.

I have to say I have had the highest regard for Newton ever since that day - and hope that likewise my colleague went away with a new outlook on Nelson.

MB

Oh, more distractions, I'm afraid. Interesting, though! Newton's home at Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham, is a hauntingly magical place, with the little partioned-off study he made and where he wrote his greatest works, having left Cambridge because of the threat of plague.

As to a comparison with Nelson - it's almost impossible to stratify them - each was a genius in his own way; though Nelson's engaging personality is in stark contrast to Newton's withdrawn, misanthropic and rather jealous nature. I do recall, many years ago, coming across a small village in France whose name and location I quite forget, where the mayor had raised a memorial to Newton 'sans égal' [without equal].

Newton was also made master of the Royal Mint - as a perk, really; but being highly focused, he threw himself into the task of purifying a coinage debased by forgers - and a not a few were hanged as a result. There are some papers relating to Newton and the Royal Mint in the PRO - I recall looking at them when I worked there.

Aha! (#2)

I managed to do a quick scoot through a year of these regional newspapers.

Everything went quiet on the school front until just after Christmas when a little flurry of adverts started again. Some advertised vacancies for pupils and a few just the date that the school would recommence - either the 18th or 25th January.

Then it was a break through until early July when again the schools were advertising - most with a start date for the new term of 19th July.

I think that is proof positive that Anna was correct about schools in Nelson's day running on a 2 term system.

The pupils seem to have had a 3 or 4 week break over Christmas. The only missing data is the approximate date that they would have broken up in early summer, and therefore the length of the summer holiday.

But all in all not a real "pressure cooker" environment as I was starting to think it might be.

MB

P.S. This a minor issue in the scheme of things - but I still find it interesting - especially that something we accept as the norm wasn't always so.

Aha! (#3)

Just did my final session in the old local newspapers yesterday.

No longer looking for anything on the "school front" but my eyes chanced on an advert for a Ladies Academy in June 1806.

Right at the bottom it stated:


It's not often that you can put a subject completely to bed, but I think I can now in this case.

EXCEPT - It's still nagging me when and why schools in the U.K. changed over to a 3-term system.

It must have been a fairly major change - so I am wondering if it came in under one of the major Education Acts.

Mmmmmmmmmm! - not quite put to bed after all.

MB

Mark:

I think school holidays would have been non-standardised in Nelson's day, beyond the two term system. The length of the mid-summer and Christmas breaks was probably variable according to the circumstances of the establishment. Rev Austen's school and others in similar private establishments, with just one teacher, would probably have needed a longer break.

The three term system probably came about piecemeal, as did wider access to education which was a haphazard affair, with schools run by the church, charities and private individuals.

Standardisation, I suspect, came with Forster's Education Act of 1870, which introduced universal elementary education, so if you fancy trawling through the provisions of the act you might find some enlightenment there...........


Just to add to your puzzlement: Eton has three terms called 'halves' and Charterhouse has three terms called 'quarters'........

An email to the school archivists might elicit some helpful information.

Anna

Yes that's exactly the Act that I was thinking about.

But a quick look round the internet now suggests that it was pitched at a somewhat higher level - i.e. the overall admin of the schools by School Boards.

I think I will lodge this query at the back of my mind and I am sure the answer will pop up somewhere.

MB

Maybe at some stage there was an alignment with universities and law schools?